Pa. homeowners to get average $200 in tax relief from slots

Remember when former Gov. Ed Rendell promised “substantial” property tax relief as he signed the bill to legalize slot machines in Pennsylvania?

Do you recall Rendell guaranteeing a minimum of $1 billion in property tax relief available each year?

Rendell has been out of office for more than two years but his promised windfall from casino gambling has yet to materialize for most taxpayers.

Pennsylvania officials recently certified nearly $612 million in slot machine revenues available for property tax relief for the 2013-14 school year. Unfortunately, that has to be shared by more than 2.5 million homeowners.

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That means an average property tax reduction of about $200 — not exactly the definition of “substantial” relief most property owners anticipated.

And keep in mind the $200 is the average across the state. Some homeowners will see as little as $53 savings in their 2013-14 property tax bills.

And here’s another troubling trend — the amount available for tax relief next year from the state’s 11 casinos is actually down by more than $4 million from the totals for the 2012-13 school year.

The state Department of Education has released estimates of next year’s reductions for most of the 500 local school districts under the homestead and farmstead exclusion program.

Here’s a breakdown of the tax reduction homeowners in The Mercury’s coverage area can anticipate for the 2013-14 school year. The figure in parenthesis is the amount of savings for the 2012-13 school year.

In Montgomery County, Pottstown School District, $370 ($369); Pottsgrove School District, $271 ($272); Spring-Ford Area School District, $185 ($189); Perkiomen Valley School District, $203 ($208), Methacton School District, $215 ($228). New figures were not available for the Upper Perkiomen School District, where homeowners received a $189 discount for the current school year.

New information for Berks County school districts has not been released yet. For the 2012-13 school year, Boyertown Area School District homeowners saw a reduction of $146; Daniel Boone Area School District, $231; and Exeter School District, $185.

A comprehensive list of property tax reductions by school district is posted on the Pennsylvania Department of Education website, however, not all of the data is available yet from all the counties to calculate the actual average tax break.

Statewide, the biggest winners include Chester-Upland School District, where reductions of $641 per homeowner are anticipated. Reductions of more than $500 are expected in the Allentown and York city school districts.

School districts are still finalizing their 2013-14 budgets and property tax bills will be mailed out over the summer.

Under Act 1 of 2006, the assessed value of the participating homesteads in each district is reduced by an equal amount, cutting the tax. Philadelphia homeowners receive city wage tax reductions instead. Revenue from slots gambling pays for it all.

Property tax savings from gambling revenues are not automatic unless you file an application with your home county. Homeowners have until March 1 to qualify for reductions in the following year.